Sanna Rimpiläinen

Building Collaborative Communities of Enquiry in Educational Research.

This article explores the concept of community of enquiry through an examination of 3 case studies: (a) a school-based community of enquiry involving pupils, teachers, and researchers; (b) a community of enquiry involving teachers from around 100 different schools in a Scottish local authority, together with policy advisers and researchers; and (c) the project team involved in the present study itself. The 3 case studies are considered in relation to 7 factors identified in previous research as significant considerations when attempting to build a community of enquiry, namely: dialogue and participation; relationships; perspectives and assumptions; structure and context; climate; purpose; and control. The authors conclude by highlighting key issues and potential implications for attempts to foster collaborative partnerships between educational researchers and practitioners.

Using a Virtual Research Environment to Support New Models of Collaborative and Participative Research in Scottish Education.

Drawing on research supported within the Scottish ‘Applied Educational Research Scheme’ this paper explores the use of the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) in developing ‘communities of enquiry’ in Scottish education and research. It focuses on the role of VREs in influencing collaborative working and educational research. The paper uses three vignettes to illustrate the ways in which VREs have the potential to transform the processes of collaborative enquiry and research in education, by offering new ways of conducting research and engaging various stakeholders (the policy, practice and research communities). The paper argues that, while initially the work conceptualised VREs essentially as tools to support communities of enquiry, it has become clearer during the analysis of emerging data from the project that VREs are developing as new environments in which participants engage and generate new forms of knowledge. They pose ethical dilemmas and challenge the status and analysis of data. The authors conclude that practitioner use of VREs needs to be recognised as a legitimate approach to collaborative working and that virtual dimensions to communities of enquiry require careful nurturing if they are to prove successful.

Knowledge in networks: knowing in transactions?

This paper discusses a methodological dilemma proposed by engaging actor-network theory (ANT) in studying collaborative research practices of researchers in a large interdisciplinary project. The paper sets the context of this large publically funded project (‘Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case Based learning’) between Education and Computer Sciences, currently being undertaken by a consortium of six UK universities and three international partners. While a strand of ANT states that knowledge ‘emerges as continuously generated effects of webs of relations within which they are located’ (Law 2007), it is very vague in terms of how precisely does that knowledge emerge and how to study that. The methods -question was further complicated by the existence of multiple, potentially conflicting epistemological positions present at the project – how to study these without having to pass a value judgement in terms of their validity and reliability? The specific focus of the discussion is what might be termed the epistemology of actor-network theory, with particular consideration of the Principle of Symmetry. The paper suggests reading ANT through John Dewey’s Pragmatism and assesses ideas to take forward from this discussion in order to study interdisciplinary research work. geneous material-semiotic-human networks. Being characterised as a sensibility (Law 2007) rather than a theory or a methodology, ANT is notoriously vague in terms of methods. While it offers ways of tracing the networks out of which knowledge is seen as emerging, it offers very little in terms of helping to answer the question of how precisely does that knowledge emerge, and how to study that. This question became pertinent in trying to find a way of studying the practices of researchers in a large, interdisciplinary research and development project between education and computer sciences. The methods-question was further complicated by the existence of multiple, potentially conflicting epistemological positions present at the DOI: 10.4018/jantti.2011040104 International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 3(2), 46-56, April-June 2011 47 Copyright

Multiple enactments of method, divergent hinterlands and production of multiple realities in educational research

What do different research methods and approaches do in practice? The article seeks to discuss this point by drawing upon socio-material research approaches and empirical examples taken from the early stages of an extensive case study on an interdisciplinary project between two multidisciplinary fields of study, education and computer sciences. The article examines how divergent disciplinary hinterlands influence the enactments of research methods, and how the choice of research approach affects the types of knowledge and realities produced in the research process.What do different research methods and approaches do in practice? The article seeks to discuss this point by drawing upon socio-material research approaches and empirical examples taken from the early stages of an extensive case study on an interdisciplinary project between two multidisciplinary fields of study, education and computer sciences. The article examines how divergent disciplinary hinterlands influence the enactments of research methods, and how the choice of research approach affects the types of knowledge and realities produced in the research process.

A new culture of innovation in Scotland - the case for Digital Health and Care Institute

Following the spending review of 2011, the Scottish Government decided that all the public service organisations should have a role to play in growing the Scottish economy. To that effect, £124m were invested for setting up eight Innovation Centres in Scotland to create sustainable and internationally ambitious open-communities bringing together universities, academics, research institutes, businesses, health and care professionals and providers, third sector organisations and citizens, as well as the Scottish Government to deliver economic growth and other benefits for Scotland. This good practice case drills into the Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) set up by a consortium formed by the University of Edinburgh, Glasgow School of Arts and the NHS24. The remit of the DHI is to transform the way health and care is delivered within Scotland by constructively disrupting health and care provision through idea generation, innovating the right products and services and establishing a new digital health and care economy for Scotland. The DHI operations are based on a unique triple-helix innovation model, which consists of an Exploratory (helping to define an area of investigation or innovation), Laboratory (product design and development) and Factory (moving a known solution towards a marketable product). Since opening its doors in October 2013 the DHI has supported and facilitated nearly 90 research and development projects in different phases of maturity.

Exploratory on Using Digitally Enabled Technology in the Remote Monitoring of Long Term Conditions

Exploratory event for the Academic Health Science Partnership (AHSP) in Tayside, on the 4th of October, where the use of digitally enabled technology in the remote monitoring of long term conditions was discussed by clinicians and other stakeholders.

The Potential of Digital Solutions for Integration of Health and Social Care Services

Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership Exploratory on the 23rd November 2016 in Aberdeen with focus on digital solutions for integrated health and care services.

A Review of Electronic Health Records Systems Around the World

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are digitised versions of the paper charts in clinician offices, clinics and hospitals. The information in an EMR is usually stored locally at a practice or a hospital, and it contains the medical and treatment history of a patient. [1] [2] [3] Electronic Health Records (EHR) focus on the total health of a patient, and are designed to reach out beyond the health organisation. The EHR systematically collate and store digitised data on patients from the different healthcare and medical organisations and providers. They also enable the secure electronic sharing of these data between the different healthcare settings, and in some instances, the patient. The information, which includes the EMR, moves with the patient between different healthcare settings, providing a more holistic view of the state of a patient across time. The EHR can also provide information on population health by aggregating relevant data (permissions providing). Sometimes EHR is also referred to as an Electronic Patient Record (EPR). [1] [2] [3]

Virtual Carrots, Sticks and Student Engagement: Supporting Student Researchers

This article describes a three-year research project which aimed to introduce a technological innovation in working with three cohorts of undergraduate students to support them in completing their final-year dissertations through the use of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). An additional aim of the project was to establish, amongst the students, a Community of Enquiry. Drawing on evidence from module evaluations, focus group interviews and user logs, the article highlights how students engaged with the VRE to support their research projects and their peers. By examining the activities of the three cohorts the authors were able to apply the seven key factors for building an educational Community of Enquiry outlined in previous research by the first author and colleagues to assert that the third cohort worked collaboratively to the degree that they could be said to have formed a Community of Enquiry.